Development of a portable ultrasonic phased array inspection imaging apparatus for NDT

To improve the inspection result repetition and reliability of manual ultrasonic method in NDT field, a portable ultrasonic apparatus based on the phased array inspection technology is developed in paper. The apparatus is small, integrated and portable, which can perform the shear wave and longitudinal wave detection, automatically transmit and receive sound wave, accomplish data acquisition in real time, provide many imaging modes, and give comments of the damage. As designed, the apparatus can implement different algorithm of the ultrasonic phased array inspection technology. With proposed inspection scheme, a phased array reference block was practically detected in the lab. Experiment results indicate the portable ultrasonic apparatus can factually imaging the flaws position, and the size and shape of flaws are nearly consistent with the practical condition. Compared to the conventional ultrasonic testing system, the current apparatus works more efficiently and reliably in the flaw detection and evaluation.